First Day of Class
by theYasha
Summary: Navin begins his first day in class with Alyson. With this new friend at his side, what could go wrong?


Navin looked around the giant, round room, lined with chairs seating kids around his age. "Wow," he said. "This place is huge. What do you do in here?"

"Listen to lectures, mostly," said Alyson, sitting down beside him. "You should be getting a textbook tomorrow, but for now you can borrow mine." She gave him a warm smile as she pushed her book between them.

"Hey, thanks!" Navin said, glancing down at the cover. It said 'Colossus - Guidance for Beginners'.

"Will we actually get to ride one of those today?" he asked, turning to her excitedly.

"Well, no. I don't think that would happen this early," she responded.

"Oh, well. It's still great to be here. Thanks again for helping me out!" Navin raised his hand up, initiating a high-five, when—

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WAM! Someone grabbed his arm, pulled him forward, and slammed their dark fist into his face. He pulled away quickly, glancing at his attacker. It was a girl with bushy black hair squished into a headband, and she looked very angry.

"What makes you think you can just walk up and slap whoever you want to, rookie?!"

Navin stood there in shock. "I- I'd ask you the same thing! What the heck was that?!"

Alyson grabbed the girl's arm. "Trish, this is Navin. What made you think he was trying to hurt me? We were just sitting here!"

"He was raising his hand towards you! What else would you call that?"

"Has she ever had a high-five before?" Navin asked, pointing to the girl.

"Sorry, Trisha's just a bit rude, _presumptuous_ , and _**overprotective**_ ," Alyson said, staring directly at Trisha the whole time.

Trisha turned towards Alyson, then glanced sheepishly to the side. "Sorry," she stated.

Alyson sighed. "I'm not the one you should be apologizing to."

Trisha slowly turned to look at Navin. A large lump was growing on his face where she had hit him. She chuckled. "Look, Navin. If you ever hurt her, or even think about hurting her, you will wish you had never been born."

Navin gulped nervously. Alyson glared at her. "That's not an apology, Trisha!"

Suddenly, they heard doors opening. Trisha quickly sat by the boy next to Navin. She made the 'I'm-watching-you' motion with her two fingers before focusing on the bald, bearded man who had just walked in, cleaning his glasses with his sleeve.

At first, the way the man described the mechs and their design was entirely captivating to Navin. As he imagined each part, he grew more excited for the day he'd finally get to pilot one. But slowly, his lecture grew more dull and tedious. He talked a lot about proper procedure and the importance of S.C. Code, whatever that was. Eventually, it all sounded like a grumpy buzz in his ears, and his eyes drifted off to hazy space.

He was brought crashing down to earth when the man shouted "Pop quiz!"

His head shot up from where it was leaning on his hands, and he glanced at Alyson in a panic. He saw that she had been taking notes, and seemed to be pretty happy about the announcement.

"Could I read those very quickly? I sort of forgot most of what he had said," Navin said anxiously.

Alyson stared at him, wide-eyed. "I have three pages of notes here, and the quiz begins—"

"Take out a piece of paper, and put away your textbook and notes," the man called.

"...Now," she said, tucking her book and notes below her feet. She handed him a piece of paper and a pencil, keeping her eyes on the teacher.

Navin glanced nervously at her, then at the paper, then back at her again. "What am I—"

"Question one! This one is easy. What is the first thing you should do in a situation of distress while inside the mech?"

Navin stared at his paper, drawing a blank. He really didn't know. It must have been something said during the procedure monologue.

He cautiously looked towards Alyson's paper, but she was shielding it with her arms on both sides. She seemed to take this very seriously. So, he looked at the paper that belonged to the boy next to him with the spiky red hair. He was roughly scribbling: 'The first thing you should do in a situation of distress is s—'

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"Hey!" Navin heard a loud, cracked voice cry out. He looked up, and saw the red-haired boy had noticed him. The boy turned to the teacher. "This one's cheating!" he yelled, pointing at Navin.

The teacher glared up at them. "Robert! This is the second time this week you've disrupted class during a quiz, be quiet! And you, boy! You think you can just waltz in here and fake your way through this course?! Get out of my classroom!"

Navin sat there, shaken by what had just happened. He tried to get up, but stumbled a bit, bumping Alyson. She looked up at him, and her expression was one of annoyance and... disappointment.

He looked away quickly, and walked out through the large seating area.

He sat outside, his arms wrapped around his knees. Everything had happened so quickly. He was dismissed just for looking at someone's paper for a second? That was ridiculous! If this was how they taught people here, how was he ever going to graduate? They could very well just throw him out of the entire school!

He placed his head into his arms, shielding it from the view of the world. He wasn't feeling like himself. He didn't feel as confident about his future as he had been while sitting in the Colossus with Cogsley. The same place where he had first met Alyson. Her expression wouldn't leave his mind. She had always been nice to him. They seemed to be becoming friends fast, and he really liked her dad. But that look on her face was so bitter. Did he do something wrong?

He was shocked when he realized his shoulders were shaking. He looked up, and felt the cold air against wetness on his cheeks. He quickly wiped the tears away, before he could even think about them. He wasn't the sad, broody sibling. He had to get over this, and move on.

He heard shuffling feet and voices from inside the classroom. He stood up, brushed himself off, wiped his eyes one last time, and leaned against the wall as if nothing had happened. The door opened, and students came walking out in a mob. He waited for either him to pick out Alyson in the crowd, or for her to find him.

The latter ended up happening. "Navin!" she called as she saw him. She moved through everyone, until she was in front of him. "Hey! Sorry you got kicked out. You really missed out on the rest of it. We got to pass around actual mechanical pieces for everyone to look at! Then we had to determine what was faulty about them. I think you would have liked it."

Navin stared at her. He didn't expect her to be so happy to see him again. "Really? That does sound pretty interesting."

She glared at a red spot in the crowd. "Ugh, Robert is just the worst. I can't believe he's started picking on you this early. I'm really sorry about that, Navin." She looked into his eyes. "Hey, are you alright?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Your eyes are red," she said with a worried expression.

His eyes widened. "Uh, I'm fine! I don't think my face is doing to well after getting slammed like that. Your friend really packs a punch!" he said, laughing.

She smiled. "Yeah, Trish is pretty tough. But she's a nice girl, really. One of the highest graded in class, too! Oh, by the way, I wrote you these!" She shuffled through some papers, before handing five to him. "They're copies of my notes. I wasn't able to get everything since I had to do it twice, but I think it will still be useful for you!"

He looked down at the papers in his hands. They had models drawn to scale, and squares around key words or points. "Wow. Thank you. You didn't have to handicap your notes for me, though."

"Oh, it's all in the book anyway," she said, waving her hand. "Don't worry about it. Now, wanna go get lunch together? I know something you'll really like!"

"Sounds great!" he said. She walked ahead, and he followed her. He wondered what he was so worried about anyway. He felt that as long as she was around, he was going to be alright here.


End file.
